Sabin: Why Rob Ryan's defense works better in Dallas than it did in Cleveland

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Tom Fox/Staff Photographer

Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan elbows head coach Jason Garrett as they watch in the final minute of the fourth quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Sunday, November 11, 2012. The Cowboys won 38-23.

IRVING — To win in Cleveland, Rob Ryan was willing to do anything. Working under head coach Eric Mangini, the eccentric defensive coordinator concocted unorthodox blitz packages and drew up odd formations. He creatively moved players around with the intent of confusing the opposing quarterback. And he spent long hours at the Browns’ facility, living out of the offices, hoping the time invested would pay dividends.

“I slept in them for seven straight weeks when I said, ‘Hey, I’m not going home until we win a game,’” Ryan said Friday.

“I’ll never say that again.”

Ryan learned his lesson the hard way, of course. Even though the defense improved over the course of his two seasons in Cleveland, the Browns lost and lost and lost.

During Ryan’s time next to the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland posted a 10-22 record. The team’s dismal performance led to the firing of Mangini in January 2011 and, shortly thereafter, Ryan’s bitter divorce from the Browns. Although Ryan was never officially fired, he quickly realized that he was no longer wanted once Pat Shurmur replaced Mangini.

“It’s not like they asked me to stay,” Ryan harrumphed.

Less than two years after that relationship ended, Ryan’s bad feelings resurfaced this week as the Cowboys prepared to face the Browns on Sunday. Now the defensive coordinator in Dallas, Ryan obliquely admitted Friday he revealed his resentment to Cowboys players in team meetings this week.

“Any time you pour everything you have into it and apparently management didn’t see it as if it was good enough, of course it’s personal,” he said.

Only weeks after his last season with the Browns expired, Ryan arrived in Dallas with a chip on his shoulder. He was also carrying the mind-set he had in Cleveland, where he held firmly to the idea that he had to out-scheme the opposition to compensate for the Browns’ lack of talent.

Though Ryan quickly realized that the personnel in Dallas was better, once telling reporters that wasn’t used to being around so many Pro Bowlers, he didn’t change his approach. He still wanted to rely on unconventional defensive concepts. In his first training camp with the Cowboys, Ryan opened his entire playbook despite the fact that a league-wide lockout in 2011 had wiped out the off-season program.

“All the calls we’ve got are on one sheet of paper,” Ryan crowed, “and it is the smallest print you’ve ever seen.”

Not long after that boast, Ryan positioned nose tackle Jay Ratliff at safety in an unusual alignment he rolled out during practice. It was Ryan being Ryan, and it seemed everyone accepted his idiosyncrasies. But as the Cowboys ran 29 different formations last season and communication breakdowns led to a defensive collapse in December, the players advised him that he should simplify some elements of his complex system.

“A couple of people probably went in and said a couple of things and gave a couple of suggestions,” safety Danny McCray said.

The crux of the message was summed up by McCray.

“We have the talent here. We have the ability to play with anyone in the league,” he said. “As long as we’re all on the same page and know our assignments, we can go out and win.”

Ryan listened, and since the off-season the Cowboys’ defense has looked rather conventional. The exotic schemes have been replaced by more conservative ones as Ryan’s confidence in the players has grown. His trust in the team’s pass rushers already abiding, Ryan saw his level of faith raised with the high-profile acquisitions of cornerbacks Morris Claiborne and Brandon Carr.

“I think when you come here — especially [since] we didn’t have any time to work with the guys — you try to do what you’ve done in the past and had success with,” Ryan said. “I don’t think it necessarily fit with what we have. I think right now we have a much better feel of our players and the things that they can accomplish, so you see a toned-down version.”

Added head coach Jason Garrett: “I think Rob understands the type of team we have now.”

And for that reason, he’s not coaching the Cowboys’ defenders like they’re the Browns. He’s adjusted to the personnel.

“Not saying that the Browns don’t have fine football players,” Ryan said.

But they don’t quite measure up to the Cowboys, a team that doesn’t need Ryan to make magic in order to win.

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